Effects of mulching and soil amendments on Asparagus officinalis L. in saline irrigated area   Arunee Yuvaniyama, Somsri Arunin and Chainam Dissattaporn   ABSTRACT       The experiment on the effects of mulching and soil amendments on Asparagus officinalis L. in saline irrigated area was carried out for three years(october1987-october1990) in farmer's field in Khon Kaen province. The experimental design was split plot in RCB with 3 replications of 16 treatments that consisted 4 main plots and 4 sub plots. The main plots were control, mulching with rice straw, bamboo tissue and sugarcane waste at the rate of 10 Kg/year. Sub plots were soil amendments with control, farmyard manure, compose and rice husk ash at the rate of 1 Kg/hill. The asparagus (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNLA, # 309) was planted at the spacing of 0.5 X 1 m2. The sub plot size was 3x 4 m2, 27 plants/sub plot. The spears were harvested at the age of 7 months after transplantation, 3 times per week.     The result showed that sugarcane waste was the best mulching material for increasing yield and number of young shoots to those with bamboo tissue, rice straw and control, respectively. Farmyard manure was the best soil amendment, compared to those with compose, rice husk ash and control, respectively. The best combination was mulching with sugarcane waste and farm yard manure as soil amendment.       Keywords: Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.), mulching, soil amendments, saline irrigated area